PilotGOne - view/record GO games (SGF) in PalmOS

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Using PilotGOne - The Menus, Handling Variations

The Menus

Game

In game view, if you open the Menu and select "Game", then you get:

[New Game with Menu]

The choices are (with shortcuts):

Edit Current Var (/V)

Drops you into Memo Pad with the entire current variation selected for you to edit. Normally, this is not necessary, and it may be dangerous if you are not familiar with the SGF standard. You have to tap Applications, and choose PilotGOne to return to viewing the game again.

At present, probably the simplest way to delete the whole game record for the current game is to do: Menu/ Game/ "Edit Current Var"/ [Details]/ [Delete...]/ [OK].

Delete Current Var (/D)

Does the obvious thing! A window will pop up for you to confirm your deletion.

When you are in view mode, the program will not let you use Delete Current Var. Similarly you cannot use it to delete the main variation (the whole game)! These refusals are done silently.

Game Info (/I)

Opens the game info window. This can be viewed, or edited, in the normal way. It is very similar to the "Create New Game?" window.

Zoom On ... (/Z)

Lets you choose the point to zoom in on – see the note on the "Zoom" gadget, above

Goto Game End (/E)

Moves to the last move of the main variation (i.e. the first in the SGF file) – not always the same as Skip Forward (>>).

Save Dead Groups Info

Can be used after you have marked dead groups in score mode.

Pass

An alternative to the Space character – " " – to play a "pass" move.

Undo

An alternative to Backspace Delete – to undo the previous move (black/white play), or to do add black/white/empty/mark.

Options

Some preferences are customisable, via Menu/ Options/ Preferences ... (shortcut "/P"). With a pop-up trigger selected, you can see something like:

[Board Preferences]

The choices are:

Last Stone (Flashing?)

Last stone blinks when the "continuous flash" option is selected (initial default). You can change this value to avoid any flashing by selecting "no flash", or you can choose "short flash", if you want the program to flash only a few times, immediately after the stone has been played.

Goto Move

When "Goto Move" is on, tapping on an already played stone in view mode (including guess next move mode) takes you to the move when that stone was played. The initial default value is "On".

If this option is switched on, and your stylus is not well calibrated, then you may accidentally rewind the game. If you have problems, leave "Goto Move" unchecked.

Goto Memo

When "Goto Memo" is on, tapping on the move number/description takes you to MemoPad with that move selected. The initial default value is "On".

If this option is switched on, and your stylus is not well calibrated, this may result in your switching to MemoPad by accident. If so, leave "Goto Memo" unchecked.

Show Next Vars as Letters

When there is a variation at the next move, and if you have selected "Show next", then on a full board you will normally see two, or more "+" characters. If you have also selected this "Show Next Vars as Letters" option, and you have a large-scale board (either zoomed-in or less than 19x19), then these moves will be displayed as the letters "a", "b", etc. Initial default is "Off".

(Remap) DateBook button

This lets you change the way that the hard "DateBook" button on your PalmOS® device behaves when you are in the PilotGOne program. (We assume that you do not remap the DateBook button to something else, using the PalmOS® Preferences – if you do, then obviously things will not behave exactly as we describe here!) When you are not in PilotGOne the hard button will behave as normal, and will open the standard PalmOS® DateBook program. You can map the button to a PilotGOne function, as follows:

not mapped – the initial default, for all buttons.
Pop Comment : open/close the comment window – equivalent to "c"/ "C", or [Done] – see comment gadget.
Move Comment : Move comment window up/down – equivalent to [Move Down]/ [Move Up] – see the comment gadget.
Prev. Var : equivalent to "^" – go to the previous variation gadget.
Next Var : equivalent to "v" – go to the next variation gadget.
Skip Backward : equivalent to "<<" – the Skip Back gadget.
Skip Forward : equivalent to ">>" – the Skip Forward gadget.
Zoom/Unzoom : equivalent to "z"/"Z" – the Zoom gadget.

If you have remapped the button, then when you press the button it will do what you have chosen, if the context allows it – otherwise it will do nothing. For example, if you remap the button to "Pop Comment", then if you are in board view, and no comment window is visible, it will pop it open – however, if you are in board view, with a comment window already open, it will close it. If you are in any mode other than board view, it will do nothing (not even launch the original PalmOS® DateBook application).

The main use of this feature (and the remapping of the other buttons), is to make the program much more finger friendly – you can replay a game, including comments and variations, without ever needing your stylus.

If you have remapped the DateBook button, and you need the Date Book while using PilotGOne you must do: Home/ Date Book/ <whatever you have to do>/ Home/ PilotGOne – you will be back to where you left off.

(Remap) Address button

Remappable – see (Remap) DateBook button, above.

(Remap) ToDoList button

Remappable – see (Remap) DateBook button, above.

(Remap) Memo button

Remappable – see (Remap) DateBook button, above.

(Remap) Calculator button (a soft button)

Remappable – see (Remap) DateBook button, above.

(Remap) Find button (a soft button)

Remappable – see (Remap) DateBook button, above.

By default, all buttons are "unmapped". A recommended set of mappings is: Date Book - Skip Forward, Address - Prev Var, TodoList - Next Var, Memo - Skip Forward, Calculator - Pop Comment, and Find - Zoom/Unzoom. "Move Comment" will not be remapped – easily done anyway.

Handling Variations

Changing Contents of Variations

The most common way of changing the SGF game record is using black play and white play. These will allow you to change the contents of a variation: insert extra move; change last stone position; replace "NN" stones, or "create new variation".
It is possible to select the current variation for editing (using the SGF record in Memo Pad), by doing Edit Current Var (/V). This may be dangerous.
You can do something similar, by tapping on Move number/description, if Goto Memo is switched on. This is equally dangerous.
A complete variation can be removed, using Delete Current Var (/D).

Travelling through Variations

SGF naming of points is not the same as is normally used (also by PilotGOne) – beware. SGF starts lettering/numbering of co-ordinates from the top left; PilotGOne starts at bottom left; PilotGOne omits the letter "I":

       SGF              PilotGOne

aa ... ja ... sa    A19 ... K19 ... T19
 :      :      :     :       :       :
aj ... jj ... sj    A10 ... K10 ... T10
 :      :      :     :       :       :
as ... js ... ss    A1  ... K10 ... T10

It will be helpful in understanding these notes if you can picture a game record including variations as a tree. Imagine a (crazy) variation happening at the top left of the board:


   a  b  c  d  e  f  g

a  B--W--B--W--B--W
      |\
b     | \B--W
       \   
c       \B--W--B--W--B
                \
d                \W

This was obtained from the official SGF documentation, which has this diagram:

[Variation tree]

Here is the SGF record, of the tree above, with new lines and spaces added for clarity:

(;B[aa];W[ba] (;B[ca];W[da];B[ea]; W[fa])
              (;B[cb];W[db])
              (;B[cc];W[dc];B[ec](;W[fc];B[gc])
                                 (;W[fd])     
              )
)

Existing Commands

Move Number/Description tells you which variation you are in, and also about the existence of immediately adjacent variations.
SkipBack (<<), and SkipForward (>>), let you skip back/forward to the next branching node – i.e. beginning/end of a variation.
When "Next" is selected from Next/Marks, several variations will be shown on the board – just click the mark.
Goto Move board preference: with this option is on, when viewing a game, you can immediately rewind to a selected move.
Variation – in the diagram above, the variation starting with move "cc" is initially labelled "c". When in the variation, "cf" and "cg" will be labelled as "a" and "b" – this is relative to the main line that they are now on!
Goto Game End, followed by tapping on the stone (works only with Goto Move switched on)

Possible future commands

The page source contains an extensive buried comment here :-)

Goto Beginning/End of Prev/This/Next variation – especially useful with Joseki Dictionaries.
You can get the program to remember the node (board position) that you are now at. Later, you can goto the remembered node. This node is the reference node for searches of the game tree – especially useful when using Joseki Dictionaries.
The most powerful set of Variation traversal tools allow you to Goto the Start/End of the First/Last variation that can be reached from this/remembered node.

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